with the loss of his parents, “I wasjust so grateful that God took careof me,” giving him a loving familynonetheless, Henson says. He eventu-ally decided, “I’m going to live mylife in gratitude for God’s care of me.”In 1995—nine years after nearlyjoining the Carmelites the first time,this time at age 30—Henson appliedto join the Carmelites again and wasordained in 2002. “Eventually I justsaid, this is where God wants me,”Henson says. “I just have to do it.”In time Henson’s communityassigned him to work at CrespiCarmelite High School, where heserved as principal. Father ThomasSchrader, a Carmelite and presidentof Bishop Ward High School inKansas City, worked with Hensonat Crespi—Schrader was presidentthere then. “He’s a really high energyperson,” Schrader says of Henson,and also prayerful and committedto social justice. “He liked to putthe students first, that was really histhing.”Henson says he loved the “ex-citement and energy” of the class-room and the sense of creativity itsparked “to really become a mentor,to walk with the kids in their sor-rows and their joys.”

Feeding a hunger for church

Before he arrived at Crespi, he
worked in Mexico with Schrader at
rural missions attached to a Carmelite parish in Torreón in the state
of Coahuila, in the northern desert.

“People were living in little shacksthey kind of put together,” Schradersays. “It eventually became a neigh-borhood. People would put togetherwhat they could and build as theyhad funds. The real eye-opener herepriest.” They went to the confession-al, and after absolution, they con-tinued their conversation outside. “Itold him my story,” Henson says. “Hesaid, ‘Maybe you should think aboutbecoming a Carmelite.’ I rememberthinking, ‘Wow, they’re not preten-tious, they’re regular guys. They careabout you as a person.’ ”

Carmelite on the second try

The priest introduced Henson to other Carmelites. He visited with them
for about a year and in 1989 applied
to join the order. “I got accepted,
but I got cold feet, kind of at the last
minute.” And he backed out. Henson
began working as a teacher, first at a
Catholic elementary school and later
a high school. “There was always a
sense of service,” he says, and always
in connection with the church.